摘要：給大家帶來雅思課外讀物“Is alcohol actually bad for you?”過量飲酒對身體有壞處，這已是共識。但適度飲酒呢(moderate alcohol)?是不是對身體有好處?好像我們喝酒的人都這么說。但這也許只是喝酒人的自我安慰罷了。如果你也不確定到底是不是有好處，那就看看本文怎么說的吧！

Meanwhile,another team of researchers studied people whose bodies cannot process alcohol properly – and therefore who generally don’t drink alcohol at all – and found those with this genetic marker had better cardiovascular health and a lower risk of coronary heart disease than those without it.(與此同時，另一個研究隊伍考察了那些身體不能處理酒精—因此根本就不能喝酒—的人，他們發現，有這種基因特征的人與沒有這種特征的人相比，心血管更健康，患冠心病的風險也低一些。)

And then there’s the really bad news. Whatever the effects that alcohol does or doesn’t have on your heart disease risk, it can still hasten your death in a myriad of(各種各樣的)other colourful ways.

The World Health Organization reported last year that drinking can increase your risk of depression and anxiety, liver cirrhosis(肝硬化), pancreatitis(胰腺炎), suicide, violence, and accidental injury.

Alcohol is also linked to cancer of the mouth, nose, larynx, oesophagus, colon, liver, andbreast cancer in women. Between 4% and 30% of cancer deaths worldwide could be attributed to alcohol use (for breast cancer, the most common, the figure was8%). Importantly, even moderate drinking confers(給與)some increased risk: just one glass a day increases the risk of breast cancer by 4%, while heavy drinking can increase the risk by 40-50%.

Heavy drinking weakens the immune system(免疫系統)and is therefore linked with pneumonia(肺炎) and tuberculosis(結核). It also encourages risky sexual behaviour which increases the chance of acquiring sexually transmitted infections such as HIV.And drinking during pregnancy can cause damage to the foetus, leading to Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.

In total,there are more than 200 diseases and injuries that can be linked to alcohol consumption, including 30 that are caused only by alcohol.

But the idea that moderate alcohol consumption might be beneficial has not entirely gone away, and even organisations dedicated to combating the problem of alcohol grudgingly(不情愿地)say that small amounts of alcohol may have a protective effect against heart disease and some types of stroke.(然而，適度飲酒對身體有好處的觀點并未完全消失，即使是那些致力于解決酒精問題的組織也心不甘情不愿地認為，少量飲酒對心臟病和其他類型的中風具有保護作用。)

Confused?You’re not the only one. Perhaps the best summation(概括)of how alcohol affects our health comes from a critical analysis published in early 2013. Its author concluded that, while the evidence of alcohol’s harmful effects was solid, there were plenty of reasons to take evidence of alcohol’s health benefits with agrain of salt(一粒鹽;打折扣)– but not,perhaps, a slice of lemon(一片檸檬;舒服愜意).

Vocabulary

Disproportionate 一邊倒的;不成比例的

Alcohol inmoderation 適度飲酒

Deposit 沉淀物

Blood vessel 血管

Ply sb. with… 給某人提供……

Speculate 假想;假設

Coronary arterydisease 冠心病

Physiology 生理機能

Herald 預示……的到來

Mechanism 機制

Replicate 復制

Abstainer 不喝酒的人

Meta-analysis 元分析

A myriad of 各種各樣的

Confer 給與

Immune system 免疫系統

Pneumonia 肺炎

Tuberculosis 肺結核

Grudgingly 不情愿地

Summation 總結

A grain of salt 一粒鹽;打折扣